CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: ELA on February 21, 2018, 11:59:34 AM
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I think it's better to split this one up.
First, rank their NC (or nearly NC) teams: 1982, 1986 and 1994.
Then the more fun part, the best non-NC teams:
1947: Finished 9-0-1, with the tie coming against #13 SMU in the Cotton Bowl. Outscored their opponents 319-25, with 6 shutouts in 9 games. Didn't exactly play a gauntlet of a schedule. That Cotton Bowl was their only game against a ranked team. Finished #5 in the polls.
1968: Finished 11-0, and ranked #2. Again victimized by a weak schedule that saw them face no ranked teams until a 15-14 win over #6 Kansas in the Orange Bowl. They were led by TE Ted Kawlick, PSU's first two time All-American.
1969: Again 11-0, again #2. They at least faced one ranked team this time, beating West Virginia. They fell to #8 after narrowly beating a bad Syracuse team, and never recovered. This was also when Richard Nixon attended the Texas-Arkansas game, and declared the winner to be national champion before the game. Paterno famously later wondered how Nixon knew so little about Watergate, but so much about college football. Season finished with a win over #6 Missouri in the Orange Bowl. The best player was DT Mike Reid, who won the Outland and Maxwell Awards. Oddly, he was an accomplished musician who played piano for several symphony orchestras, including Dallas and Cincinnati. He abruptly retired from the NFL after 4 seasons, inlcuding back to back All-Pro years, to focus on music. He's had a #1 hit and a Grammy as a country music writer.
1971: Led by two headed rushing attack of Franco Harris and John Cappelletti, PSU rolled over 10 straight opponents, and only Air Force (16-14) stayed within 28 points of them. Same thing though, weak schedule. First ranked opponent was a loss at #12 Tennessee by 20 in the season finale. Turned around and thumped Texas by 24 in the Cotton Bowl.
1973: Finished 11-0, with a 35-13 win over #20 Pitt, and 16-9 over #13 LSU in the Orange Bowl. John Cappelletti won the school's first Heisman. Finished ranked #5.
1977: Finished 11-1 and ranked #5. An early season upset loss to Kentucky derailed their NC hopes, but a season finale win over Pitt, with both ranked in the top 10 is legendary. Second half was notable for the snow falling in Pittsburgh, and PSU won by stuffing Pitt on a 2 point conversion, after Pitt scored a TD with 12 second left. The win over #15 Arizona State (along with Nebraska playing 2 years earlier) is what began to cement the Fiesta Bowl's legitimacy.
1978: Beat #6 Ohio State (19-0), #5 Maryland (27-3) and #15 Pitt (17-10) to reach #1 in the polls going into the bowl games, where they lost to #2 Alabama in the Sugar Bowl 14-7 in the de facto national championship game. Chuck Fusina won the Maxwell Award (#2 in the Heisman) and 3 OL were drafted in the 1979 NFL Draft.
1981: Finished #3 in the polls after being ranked #1 until a Halloween upset loss to Miami that cemented the start of the Canes' rise to the top. After another loss to #6 Alabama to fall to #13, Penn State recovered to beat Notre Dame, and then upset rival, and #1, Pitt, to ruin their national title hopes. Finished with a win over #8 USC in the Fiesta Bowl.
1991: Finished 11-2 and ranked #3. Played a schedule that saw them face four top 12 teams, and win 3 of them, the lone loss being a 26-20 loss at eventual national champion Miami. They beat #8 Georgia Tech, #12 Notre Dame and #10 Tennessee by an average of 20 points. They also held BYU to their lowest offensive output in 5 years, sacking defending Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer 6 times.
2005: Finished 11-1 and ranked #3, with the lone blemish being in Ann Arbor on Mario Manningham's catch on the final play of the game. Probably wouldn't have mattered as even an undefeated PSU would have been #3 behind USC and Texas that year. Coming off back to back losing seasons, Penn State wasn't even ranked until a 44-14 win over #18 Minnesota, shot them up to #16 in the October 2 poll, and a big night game win that made the Happy Valley White Out a thing occurred the following week against #6 Ohio State. Closed with a triple OT win over #22 Florida State in the Orange Bowl. LB Paul Posluszny won the Bednarik and Butkus Awards, while QB Michael Robinson won the Silver Football.
2016: After September losses to Pitt and Michigan left PSU 2-2 and unranked, James Franklin's time seemed numbered. They then won 9 consecutive games, including over #2 Ohio State and #6 Wisconsin, to win the Big Ten title and play #9 USC in the Orange Bowl, losing by 3. Penn State didn't crack the polls until October 23, reaching as high as #5 following their Big Ten Championship Game win. RB Saquon Barkley won the Silver Football.
2017: Preseason #6, got as high as #2, which they cemented with a 42-13 win over #19 Michigan. Back to back losses by a combined 4 points to #6 Ohio State and #24 Michigan State ended their Big Ten title hopes. They finished on a 4 game winning streak, including a win over #12 Washington in the Fiesta Bowl, their first major bowl win in 12 years.
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I bet at the time, no one thought that 1977 Kentucky team was worth a damn. It finished 10-1 and is their best squad in the past 50 years.
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1982 is disqualified. :96: I shouldn't have to explain .
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Then give back your 1994 NC.
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- '94 is the best team in blue and white I ever laid eyes on. Not much more needs to be said about them other than the defense was WAY better than anyone gives them credit for (long thought as the 'weak link' only b/c of how spectacular the offense was). I truly believe in my heart of hearts they were the better team than Nebraska that year.
- I have heard from old heads they best team they ever saw was the '69 team. This team was part of the topic of the 30/30 film "Nixon's National Champs". PSU essentially played no one that year (unfortunate due to the heavy eastern independent schedule). The names on that team are a who's who - Ham, Mitchell, Reid, Onkotz, Harris, Pittman - that three headed RB committee was insane.
- Three teams very underrated in one man's opinion: 1991, 2005 and 1971.
- A team that should be on this list but never met expectations - 1999. That defense was the best I've ever seen at Penn State, and had they not tried the QB by committee approach I think they would have went undefeated.
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Then give back your 1994 NC.
Wasn't that the penalty for '82?
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This '82 and '94 stuff is why UNL and PSU should close the season every year.
1994 was the best I've seen, and yes, I think they could have beaten UNL that year.
The mediots and coaches wanted to get Dr. Tom a title, and they did it.
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This '82 and '94 stuff is why UNL and PSU should close the season every year.
1994 was the best I've seen, and yes, I think they could have beaten UNL that year.
The mediots and coaches wanted to get Dr. Tom a title, and they did it.
PSU lost that title vote in Big Ten country, actually. If you look at the area map of who voted for PSU and who voted for UNL, the majority of the Big Ten states (Ohio, Michigan, Illinois mainly, but also Pittsburgh media; no bias at all right?) all voted for UNL.
Couldn't have PSU come right into the conference and win a MNC within 2 years, don't ya know?
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Don't matter where they are from. They just wanted Dr. Tom to get his title. Mission accomplished.
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What was the worst Lions team of all time?
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Miami 94 D>>>PSU's 94 D
Miami's O that year was also decent, not as explosive as PSU in the running game, but they were good.
UNL would do just fine verses PSU that year.
I will suggest PSU 94>Michigan 97. I do firmly believe that.
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What was the worst Lions team of all time?
Boy the 2003 team was the worst I ever laid eyes on and probably of all the Paterno years. Defense was really young and the lack of experience really showed, they totally underutilized Derek (now known as Cameron) Wake, and the offense was putrid. Only thing I'll say about 2003 with respect to the defense was that it gave those young guys a lot of minutes and they gradually got much better as the year went. The 2004-2006 defenses by association were outstanding b/c of that baptism by fire.
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Miami 94 D>>>PSU's 94 D
Miami's O that year was also decent, not as explosive as PSU in the running game, but they were good.
UNL would do just fine verses PSU that year.
I will suggest PSU 94>Michigan 97. I do firmly believe that.
Absolutely Miami's defense that year was better, totally agree. Miami's offense was no where near Penn State's that year. No one's was - not Miami, Nebraska (the next year, yes we'd have an argument), not Colorado, not Florida St.
PSU's offense was the first true 'video game' offense CFB has ever seen in my opinion. I'm not sure how much yinz realize they could have put 70 up on absolutely everybody that year except Michigan and Illinois - and lest we forget how good that Illinois defense was that year and PSU scored 35 that game. Paterno pulled starters regularly in the 3Q that season, if not sooner and they still were in the 50's a lot of times.
I think it would have been a heck of a game, I think PSU would have eventually outscored UNL that season. I don't think the Blackshirts could have held them down long enough.
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too bad we will never know how wrong you are... =)
but what we do know is UNL owns PSU in volleyball. So, we have that...
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The '81 and '82 teams were very talented teams.